Ben Raderstorf

California can use these three words in the Constitution to push back against Trump OPINION: The California legislature has a powerful potential tool to push back against the excesses of the Trump administration. They just need to pass this law.

“The California Legislature does have one powerful potential tool to push back, one that no other state has yet fully embraced.” Cameron Kistler and @raders.bsky.social write how California and other states can protect residents against violations of their constitutional rights by federal officers.

Integrating Affordable Housing in Market-Rate Developments In this report, we examine the implementation and costs of the IZ program in Washington, DC.

New research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social: We examine DC's inclusionary zoning (IZ) program, designed to provide affordable units in new market-rate developments.

We model the program against an alternative where the city would collect taxes from projects & use them to subsidize existing units.

Right on cue, here are the push alerts from the 3 major newspapers lmao

California can use these three words in the Constitution to push back against Trump OPINION: The California legislature has a powerful potential tool to push back against the excesses of the Trump administration. They just need to pass this law.

California‘s legislators are finally turning to what may be the most powerful tool to constrain Trump’s lawlessness. My op-ed on @scottwiener.bsky.social’s SB747 in the @sfchronicle.com www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

One down, three to go.

California can use these three words in the Constitution to push back against Trump OPINION: The California legislature has a powerful potential tool to push back against the excesses of the Trump administration. They just need to pass this law.

California‘s legislators are finally turning to what may be the most powerful tool to constrain Trump’s lawlessness. My op-ed on @scottwiener.bsky.social’s SB747 in the @sfchronicle.com www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/open...

trump only cares when it hits him personally. they should sanction trump directly.

you wanna see results: close his scottish golf course.

Democrats are, maybe without realizing it, complicit in Trump’s total destruction of our alliances and standing in the world.

No other country believes they will be able or willing to undo this. Those countries may not be wrong

I like to scroll 311 to remind myself of *just the non-emergency* services my city government is constantly on-call for. This doesn’t include fire, police, disaster response, not to mention schools, social services, etc.

“Local government: the everything app.“

This is true in every city, not just NYC, btw.

*Right now* your municipal government’s staffers are doing somewhere between a dozen and several hundred different things to keep you comfortable and safe.

Would want to follow up immediately with a southern state with large number of Black voters (I’d lean VA or GA over SC) but that would do wonders for the vibes and selection power of the D primary

It’s basically all of the ostensible reasons why Iowa and New Hampshire were first, except also exactly the opposite of Iowa and New Hampshire

Unironically: New Mexico should be first.

✅Small state with unpredictable electorate
✅Third most diverse state
✅ Least wealthy blue state
✅Great cultural (and literal) backdrop for media storylines

Gerrymander Game: Interactive Electoral Districts Tool Learn how gerrymandering affects elections. Interactive game comparing single-member vs multi-member districts with real-time seat allocation results.

Proportional representation systems can't be gerrymandered. Don't believe me? Give it a try!

I made a gerrymandering simulator with an imaginary state under either single-member districts or multi-member proportional districts.

How much can YOU gerrymander?
claude.ai/public/artif...

Really depends on what you're solving for, it's a spectrum with different plusses and minuses, but most countries settle around 4-8. Gets you a goldilocks zone of about 3-5 effective parties.

This is great. I'll keep this link for articles or cocktail party conversations on proportional representation!

This is the problem of racial gerrymandering in the US. It's getting harder to draw majority-minority districts as populations are less concentrated.

Also what's happened in on party lines, e.g. Mass where it's mathematically impossible to give Rs a single seat: www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Conversely, under single-member districts, it can be extremely difficult to even *purposefully* draw districts to benefit a minority group. Here's an 11% minority map where it's literally impossible to draw a district that's blue majority — no three dots are close enough together.

Huge win here by @aclu.org. Similar to a court order we and our partners obtained recently in Chicago in a similar case.

It's important not just because of the order itself, but because it creates a forum for accountability for federal officers who violate it who can now be held in contempt.

Totally!

Also the thing I point to when people say how "un-American" multi-member districts are. We already have multi-member districts! We just call them: "The Senate"

For more on the difference between PR and winner-take-all, see: protectdemocracy.org/work/proport...

Mostly though it's a great demonstration of how incredibly easy gerrymandering is under winner-take-all, single-member system.

Truly, it's not rocket science. A child could do it.

My favorite little tidbit from this game: under PR, if the a party get just *11% of the vote in the state,* that's enough to guarantee at least one seat, no matter how you district. It's only at 90-10 split that it becomes mathematically even possible to draw a 16-0 map.

CC: @leedrutman.bsky.social, @gelliottmorris.com, @mattyglesias.bsky.social, @dustinwahl.bsky.social, @aarmlovi.bsky.social, @prorepcoalition.bsky.social @fairvote.bsky.social

Some tips:
- A little finicky on mobile, better on desktop, but swipe and drag helps.
-First try to "crack" (draw as many 3-2 districts as you can), then "pack" (put all the remaining opposition voters in 0-5 districts).
-See how far you can tilt a state and still gerrymander in either direction.

Gerrymander Game: Interactive Electoral Districts Tool Learn how gerrymandering affects elections. Interactive game comparing single-member vs multi-member districts with real-time seat allocation results.

Proportional representation systems can't be gerrymandered. Don't believe me? Give it a try!

I made a gerrymandering simulator with an imaginary state under either single-member districts or multi-member proportional districts.

How much can YOU gerrymander?
claude.ai/public/artif...

Two days ago it was Elissa Slotkin. Last week it was Jerome Powell. Before that, Mark Kelly. Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic.

The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.

A grand unified strategy to uphold the Constitution A wave of proposals to strengthen the tools, not the rules

Protect Democracy has a set of compelling proposals to make what is already illegal enforceable as such -- read the details here: www.ifyoucankeepit.org/p/a-grand-un...

Minnesota Gov Tim Walz: “The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.”

This is a transparent attempt to create a pretext for invoking the Insurrection Act.

One provision applies when a group of people "opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws." And when it's (allegedly) the state itself...